The SEB has rejected a recommendation from the Corporate Services Scrutiny Panel to immediately make training on discrimination a requirement, ‘to build and create a culture where wrong behaviour is quickly called out by colleagues and enable opportunities for changes in behaviour’.
In its response, the SEB said the panel’s ‘suggested approach to addressing this does not consider the systemic requirements of addressing poor behaviour in the workplace’.
It added: ‘A mandatory, one-size-fits-all training programme is poor practice, expensive and will have little impact.’
The panel’s review of workplace culture, which focused on bullying and harassment, also cited a concerning level of staff turnover within government and said morale was ‘worryingly low’ in some departments.
The review was prompted by a ‘significant number of concerns’ raised in relation to culture within the government, panel chairperson Senator Kristina Moore said, and the impact this was having on staff morale and retention rates.
In an executive report accompanying the response, the SEB said it welcomed the panel’s People and Culture Review, adding that it had given the board the ‘opportunity’ to share its progress and ‘to work on fresh recommendations made by the panel where objective and independent insight has identified further areas for improvement’.
But, it added: ‘Equally some of the findings and subsequent recommendations were found to be either factually or evidentially inaccurate.’
It said there was no reference in the report to the Covid-19 pandemic, ‘the timescales, business continuity needs and the impact that providing a whole organisation response to best managing the pandemic has had on progressing business objectives’.
The board accepted 13 of the recommendations, accepted two in part and rejected nine. The SEB also agreed with 28 of the panel’s findings, and disagreed with 13.
Some of the recommendations had already been acted on, it said.
It added: ‘By becoming a values-led organisation, with effective performance management in place and a cadre of capable, competent and confident managers we will have much better success in tackling any areas of bullying, harassment and discrimination. There are a number of programmes of work in place to help enable this.’
